Last Friday we went to Madrid for the first race of the 2012 season with two major news in the Spanish rules, no final direct classified drivers, and the use of additives. After trying to learn about additives during this winter, this was the first race where we could see our real performance.

FRIDAY

During the free practice, the additive that had worked very well during the preseason was very wrong. The car was very difficult to drive. He thought that maybe this excess of grip was produced by track additivation some weeks ago. Therefore we decided to test with an additive for high grip conditions. This additive made the car easy to drive but not as fast as needed.

SATURDAY

In the controlled practice is where we saw that Oscar Cabezas was much faster than me. Their laptimes were awesome and we began to test different things in order to reduce this difference.

We did a first run without additive to ensure a spot in the top 4 with a time of 24v in 7:03. The subsequent two rounds get worse and we can not improve what we had done without additives. So we thought it might be that the track was not for the use of additives. But the difference with Cabezas was too high.

In the fourth qualy we tried again without additives and with a change of setup as softer springs back to pass better through the bumps and I could improve my time 3 seconds, 24v at 7:00. I was very happy with the car thinking that without additives I could not go much faster.

In the last run we decided to test again the additive that didn’t works on Friday and the car was amazing. During the first few laps I was doing all the laps in high 16 which was a very good pace, until wheels left the additive and started shooting in 17 low. I improved my time 5 seconds.

However, Oscar was into another orbit unattainable for us since we did not know what to do to get better because my car was almost perfect for me. On the other hand it seemed that we were one step ahead of Peracho, Victor, and Montesinos who a priori were the other drivers who had a chance of winning.

SUNDAY

I decided to move to front stiffer springs to reduce the front rolling and to improve corner speed.

I started the semi B with ne nº1. The start was good, but the engine was a bit rich. Due to we were able to maintain the first place, we decided to don’t stop to adjust the engine . We won the semi B having a very good pace with the engine a little bit rich. The surprise came in the semi A when Oscar ran out of fuel finishing second. We could also see that his lap times were not as spectacular as on Saturday and maybe we could have rhythm to try to fight.

So I started the main final with the nº1. The car was perfect during the warm up . Carlos and Oscar were fighting a couple of laps so I could take some advantage. My surprise came when Cabezas overtaken Peracho (who went to pits to change the glow plug) and I saw that I was a little bit faster that Cabezas during the first 4 minutes. Before the first stop I made the fastest lap of the final in 16.6 which shows that the fastest laps will be made at the beginning when the additive is better! But in the first refuelling stop I made a rookie mistake hitting the rail, damaging the body and the exhaust pipe (we didn’t notice it afer the end of the race)! Here we lost the first position and the engine began to do strange things due to the damaged pipe. It becomes very rich doing almost the whole track with the first gear. However we could maintain the second place. After the second stop the engine became more rich to enter to adjust it. I missed all my chances of winning until Cabezas broke the engine more or less on the minute 20.

So we decided to change the wheels and adjust again the engine. From here, the final was a final against myself. I was driving with a rich engine, which a comfortable first place so we decide to don’t adjust more the engine and try to end the race. Finally, we could bring the car to the end, winning the first national race of 2012, which gives us much moral for the rest of the season!

Comment that the TE 966 v2 works awesome. Both with and without additive, the car was amazing. We introduced here the new clutch True Motion and the truth is that it works perfect. It is extremely linear and very constant during the finals! On the other hand every day we are happier with the Matrix tyres!

Thank all the people who support me and help at the races (my father, Jonny Pator, Porcar Jorge and Javier Leon here helping my father during the final, etc, etc..) And my sponsors Serpent and The Matrix!